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Monday, June 30, 2008

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 49

I was dragging again Sunday so I didn't work on FamilySearch Indexing then. Monday is good enough. I took a long four hour nap today so hopefully I am replenishing my batteries. Work is hectic because we lost an employee in our department and it was small to begin with. In little companies everyone has a specific job and it's hard to loose someone even for a day. Hopefully they will get a new person hired soon and take some of the stress off us. For now I am trying to take it slow after work so I don't exhaust myself again.

FamilySearch Indexing is relaxing for me so I never mind doing that. It's the writing of the article afterwards that takes effort. Boy, do I need a proof-reader!

This past week the Ancestry Insider had an interesting article "FamilySearch Clearing Out Inactive Indexers". It appears that if you haven't indexed in the past 9 months, or if your new and haven't signed in in 3 months they are removing your account today. I never did receive that email, but then again I'm not an inactive indexer either. It will be interesting to see how many numbers we drop for total indexers after the dead wood is cleaned out. As of May 6, 2008 we had 140,000 registered users.

I am still working on the Louisiana 1850-1954 Death Certificates. I indexed 2 batches or 37 individuals tonight. Since finishing my Irish records I haven't been doing as many in a month. This month I only indexed 139. I'm not sure exactly my total for the months before. My total to date is 7,763. There sure is more to index on the death records though. I guess every bit helps.

The first record I worked on was for a little 2 year old boy that must of died at home because there was no physician. He had a bad cold and fever. How sad. It was in 1923 and I found many in that batch that had no physician. People must of been still doctoring their sick at home then. It was also in my first batch that I found my first murder victim. Their head was crushed with a blunt instrument. I know that sounds gross but then I had to run and tell my kids what I found. We were all fascinated by the death certificate.

I must of been to morbid because in my second batch I indexed a homicide and suicide. The husband killed his wife in the grocery store before killing himself. The death certificate was from 1948 and much more detailed than the 1923 certificates. I won't go into the details but now I have seen everything. I guess you never know what you will index!

In that same batch I did come across two infant girls death certificates that gave their given names as "b. of Estine" and "b. of Mary Virginia". I have never come across that before. I noticed that the mothers were named Estine and Mary Virginia so I assuming they were un-named children. Could the "b" stand for birth? I would be interested to hear what the "b" stood for.

The last person I indexed was killed after being struck by a passing car. Again way to much detail on the cause of death. I know we don't have to look at that while indexing but I just can't help myself. Though I did decide I had enough death certificates for one night. So much for a relaxing evening working on FamilySearch Indexing!